Movie Review - The Godfather

The Godfather is Francis Ford Coppola's award winning picture depicting the passing of one generation of organized crime to the next.

The Don of the Corleone family (Marlon Brando) is the head of one of the five major organized crime syndicates in New York in late 1945. The movie begins with a distraught undertaker begging Don Corleone to take vengeance against the men who attacked his daughter. Men who need certain things taken care of would come to the Don asking for his help. One in particular, Johhny, comes to the Don asking that he does something to help him get a role in a Hollywood production. The Don in turn sends his consulere, Tom (Robert Duvall), to try and stronghand the head of the picture company into giving the role to Johnny. When he refuses, Tom sends men to cut off the head of the movie execs $600,000 horse and put it into his bed. Johhny is said to be the fictionalization of Frank Sinatra and his deal to be in the movie "From Here to Eternity."

From this point on the movie goes through the anatomy of the fall and resurrection of the Corleone family. A feud between the Corleone and Tatalglia family ensues when a thug from the Corleone family is killed and an attempt on the Don Corleone's life are made. Michael Corleone (Al Pachino), one of the Don's three sons, vows revenge by murdering a Turkish drug dealer and his crooked police chief bodyguard. These two men, the police chief and the drug dealer, are both connected to the other families and this action in turn starts a mob war. For his own safety, Michael flees the country to the Italian island of Sicily where he marries the daughter of a pub owner.

Now since this review is to be posted on a webpage, my journalistic integrity prevents me from revealing the rest of the movie. All I can say is look out for scenes where Sonny (James Cahn) is looking out for his sister, where Michael's new wife is looking to go for a ride, where the Don is playing games with his grandson, and also look out for the baptism climax.

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First things first: I LOVED THIS MOVIE!!!

Francis Ford Coppola's adaptation of Mario Puzzo's novel is brilliant. The story, albeit it is almost three hours long, is beautifully told with every detail. One of the factors that makes this film so well made is that Coppola and Puzzo co-wrote the screenplay so that all the details of the novel are incorporated into the movie. The movie is played out so that the story of the family is told completely. Personally, I felt almost as if I were somehow involved in this story and the story line makes it so anyone can have personal feelings toward these characters. The set work was perfectly done to match post war New York. This movie is all about detail. From the cinemaphotography to the clothes to the character development, this film leaves no questions.

The characters are masterfully portrayed in this film. Apart from most films, this movie has no one particular main character. The film centers around Michael because he is to inherit the business, but also goes deeply into the life of his brother Sonny. After Michael flees to Sicily, the film bounces back and forth from New York to Sicily to tell what is happening on both sides of the mob war front. We see how Sonny is so enraged by the abusiveness of his sister's husband that it ultimately leads to his demise. Although Michael becomes the boss in the end, the plot plays out as almost a trick. Everybody expects Sonny to be the Don in the end.

It is the character of Michael that effected me the most. He comes home from a great war, he comes home a hero, but is ultimately drawn into the "dark side of the force" if you will. In the scene where Michael offs the drug dealer and the cop, the roaring of a nearby train somehow intensifies the mood of the moment. The roaring of the train symbolizes the internal conflict within Michael. The loud clashing of the rails symbolizes the way Michael felt about the family business. He wants to stay far away from the mob life but is so enraged by the attempt on his father's life that he must seek revenge. This is it for Michael; he can never go back to a normal life.

This movie strikes an emotional chord within it's viewers. We don't want to see Michael to be drawn into the mob life but then again we feel the anger that he feels after his father is shot. The viewer almost takes this movie personally. In one scene we see the man who coped out on the Don, Paully, get killed. Two men plus Paully are in a car driving around the country amicably talking when one of the men excuses himself by the side of the road. The camera zooms to a wide angle view of the man urinating and the other two men in the car. It is completely silent and then three shots ring out and we see Paully's head hit the dashboard. The man then zips-up and nonchalantly tells the other man to leave the gun and grab the conollies. In this scene the viewer is not meant to feel anything for these characters especially Paully. The camera and the way the scene is played is so matter of factly that we don't feel anything for the man who indirectly almost led to the Don's death.

Like I stated above, this movie is a personal story of a family and their personal trials and tribulations. A story which one cannot help but feel in some way connected to. Even though your family is probably not in the mafia, you can relate to the ways that these characters try and keep their family together. Maybe if more families were as close knit as this one is, we could relieve the disfuntionalness of this country. Maybe if every family was connected to the mob. . .

Oscars (1972)

Best Picture- Albert S. Ruddy Production, Paramount

Best Actor- Marlon Brando

(source: The Cambridge Factfinder 1994)